Loading viscous materials, such as silicone or some formulations of collagen, might be tricky. If you need to transfer a viscous biomaterial to a printing syringe follow these simple steps:
- Remove the plunger from a printing syringe. Detach the rubber seal from the plunger and set it aside.
- Add viscous biomaterial to the wide opening of the syringe barrel. If your material comes in a tube or another syringe, squeeze it out directly. You can also use a spatula to place some material in the barrel.
- Place the rubber seal in the syringe barrel.
- Use the plunger to push the rubber seal to move the material all the way to the tip of the syringe. You can reduce bubbles by inverting the syringe and pushing the plunger pointing the syringe upwards.
- Note: If you are using the syringe plunger, make sure it doesn’t lock back into the rubber seal.
Now you are ready to print!
Tip: Some materials change their viscosity depending on the temperature. Look into the specification of your material to see if this is possible. Then you can warm up (or cool down – for example in case of Pluronic F127) your material to make loading easier. Be careful however not to change material properties permanently.
If you have any questions about loading viscous materials, you can contact the Allevi Customer Success Team at [email protected].
Visit our Protocols page for more guides to bioprinting, bioink prep, and analysis.